July 23, 2014 Colossians Chapter 2

Colossians Chapter 2

Originally posted Friday September 5, 2008

Colossians Chapter 2:1-5 Paul's Interest in the Churches

Paul's interest is not just in the Colossian community. He "agonizes" on their behalf but also for "those in Laodicea" and churches of western Asia Minor who "have not seen [his] face in the flesh" (in person). The word in vs. 1 usually translated as "struggling" is too weak a word to understand Paul's emotional investment in these churches. While he trusts such evangelists as Epaphras and others whom he trained and sent out from Ephesus he wants to be sure they have the benefit of his own words of encouragement. Perhaps there is need for the occasional clarification of the Gospel he represents so the recipients can weigh his words against the plausible yet corrupting influences that inevitably creep into the church. He is concerned that they be united in love, being of the same mind, thinking alike so they "may have all of the riches of the full assurance of understanding" and the knowledge of God's mystery (1: 26-27) which is Christ. "Full assurance," as in Fanny Crosby's hymn "Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine," is more than intellectual assent. It is from the emotions, rising up from within the soul where the intellect and the Spirit intersect. For Paul, Christ is the mystery who holds "the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" of God's reconciling act.

Paul's motive in providing this insight into the mystery which is Christ is to provide a warning couched in his encouragement. Although he is absent he stands with them in the spirit, "rejoicing in their morale" and firmness of faith in Christ, a condition he aims to support. There are real threats at work among the Colossians which could deceive them. They may be plausible. They may have the appearance of truth, deceptive nuances introduced as ancillary to the Gospel. But these additions or small modifications can erode the "assurances of understanding" and weaken the knowledge of God's mystery. This is why his interest in these churches is so intense and why he agonizes over their spiritual health.

Colossians Chapter 2:6-19 Fullness of Life in Christ

Because of these threats Paul exhorts the Colossians to continue to live the life in Christ in their own lives, remembering the faith in which they were rooted and established as a community of believers. They should beware of the allure of pagan and Jewish philosophies involving "human tradition" (Jewish practices) and the "elemental spirits of the universe" (Greek as well as Jewish Apocalyptic thought). These are not in accord with what they have been taught in Christ. Such things are as nothing compared to Christ in whom "dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" and in whom they have "come to fullness. (1:19)" These human traditions and cosmic spirits have been "disarmed." They have no authority over the Colossians who should not allow themselves to be disqualified from reaching the heavenly prize (hope) given to them by God. It is Christ who is the head of all things. It is Christ in whom they received their spiritual circumcision and with him they have been buried in baptism and raised through faith in God. He reminds the Gentile Colossians that it was God who brought all of this about while they were still sinful pagans, forgiving them, erasing any demands of the law and nailing them to the cross. So, he writes, don't let anyone speak against you on account of matters of food and drink or unnecessary observances. They are but a shadow belonging to the past life which has died and was buried with Christ in baptism. Such shadows cannot compare to what is to come with Christ.

Subservience of the body to the elemental spirits and to human traditions derived from the law are not the only deceptive threats to faithfulness in Christ. The Colossians are to beware of ascetic philosophies (Greek Stoic/Cynic, Jewish Essene and Therpeutae) that advocate physical abasement (strict fasting, self punishment, hermit-like existence, etc.), an entering into visions and the worship  of angels. The three elements of fasting, visions and worship of angels are taken together as a single event. The one who fasts enters into a vision in which one encounters the heavenly angels from whom intercessory intervention on the visionary's own or another's behalf is sought. This is not unlike the practice in some cultures of praying to the ancestors or the various saints in the religious pantheon. These are human ways of thinking which inflate one's sense of self importance and lead to judgment of others who have not had such experiences. They are not of Christ and they certainly are not of the heavenly realm but are rooted in human thinking. They are just in one's mind which has remained fixed in the human body without venturing forth to the heaven places. The conceit separates such a person from Christ, the head of the body, the church, and diminishes the church's ability to grow in Spirit.

Colossians Chapter 2:2-23 More Warnings Against False Teachers

These verses provide a brief review of what Paul has presented as deceiving and dangerous variations of the Gospel in which the Colossians first believed. He questions those who cling to aberrant practices of philosophies and human traditions. If they have died in Christ why do they still act as if they belonged to the world to which such practices belong? Why do they submit to "human commands and teachings" about things that will perish (vs. 16)? These practices may seem to be derived from spiritual wisdom but they are nothing more than undisciplined self indulgence.

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Note:

As we read this chapter we will identify a number of modern practices derived from the same Jewish/Greek ideas regarding the elemental spirits of the universe, fasting, angels and visions, all of which were rejected by late first century Christianity. Fasting and forms of self abasement leading to visions are part of many cultures including monastic communities. Other practices include:

a. the use of ecstatic speech

b. guardian angels and saints to whom one prays for intercession

c. sweat lodges and the use of hallucinogens leading to the spirit quest or supposed expansion of the mind

d. believing in astrology in which the elemental spirits represented by the planets and other celestial bodies are thought to guide one's life

e. a variety of religious and superstition-based rituals meant to ward away evil spirits or to be pleasing to a particular deity (incense on the altar, the flame of a candle rising to heaven).

We do not need to condemn any of these practices, but we can ask to what degree any of them are effective ways of being closer to God and being better Disciples of Christ in the world or are they simply distractions?